Hollywood has been telling versions of the Invisible Man story for years. But Hollow Man, a Paul Verhoeven picture that opens August 4, unveils something new - the painstaking process of a man becoming invisible. We're not talking a fade-out: Sebastian Caine (played by Kevin Bacon) disappears layer by layer, from his skin to his bones to thin air.
"I've been living inside the Hollow Man," says Sony Pictures Imageworks' Greg Anderson, who began developing the character's look in August 1998; he consulted professors of anatomy and physiology, watched scores of med-school videos, and even participated in dissections. "The human body is a very complex system,"he says, "but in the end, the math was harder than the anatomy." The f/x team developed several proprietary tools - including a "muscle shader" - along the way.
Beyond the big screen, the effects behind the Hollow Man (unveiled in July at Siggraph) will take on another life: The film's medical consultants hope to use the digital model in the classroom as a virtual living human.
ELECTRIC WORD
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